Osman Yousefzada is a British born
interdisciplinary artist and writer.
Osman’s practice revolves around modes of storytelling, merging autobiography with fiction and ritual. His work is concerned with the representation and rupture of the migrational experience and makes reference to socio-political issues of today. These themes are explored through moving image, installations, text works, sculpture, garment making and performance.
Yousefzada is a research practitioner at the Royal College of Art, London and a visiting fellow at Cambridge University. His work has been shown at international institutions including: Whitechapel Gallery, London; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (solo 2018); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, V&A (solo 2022): Wapping Project, London; Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio; Ringling Museum, Florida; Lahore Museum, Pakistan; Design Museum, London; Lahore Biennale, Pakistan; and Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh.
Yousefzada’s contemporary art practice has been described as "defiant", where the participating bodies throughout his work are presented as part objects that refuse to identify or conform. Most recently, his series of solo interventions titled What Is Seen & What Is Not was shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, London. Across three site-specific works, this commission responded to the 75th anniversary of Pakistan independence and explored themes of displacement, movement, migration, and climate change. Furthermore, Yousefzada has been invited to exhibit at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024, a solo show hosted by the V&A and the Fondazione Berengo at the Palazzo Franchetti.
In his first book, The Go-Between (2022), set in Birmingham in the 1980s and 1990s, alternative masculinities compete with strict gender roles while female erasure and honour-based violence are committed, even as empowering female friendships prevail. This book was long listed for the Polari Prize, winning the Slightly Foxed memoir prize and reviewed by Stephen Fry as "one of the greatest childhood memoirs of our time."
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Solo Exhibitions
2024
60th Venice Biennale, V&A & Fondazione Berengo
BRB Costumes & Scenography
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford
University of Glasgow, Glasgow
2023
Stoke on Trent, British Ceramics Biennale
2022
What is Seen & What is Not, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
2018
Being Somewhere Else, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Annual Migrant Festival, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (Curator & Founder)
Public Art Installation
2021 Infinity Pattern 1, Ikon Gallery & Selfridges Birmingham
selected through an international competition
Group Shows
2023
Life is More Important Than Art, Whitechapel Gallery, London
new commission & iteration of ‘An Immigrant’s Room of Her Own’
One That Includes Myth, Goodman Gallery, London
artists include, El Anatsui, Ghada Amer, Yee I Lee, Johanna Unzueta
Alea Iacta Est, Vistamare, Milan
curated by Milovan Farronato and artists include Anthea Hamilton, Celia Hempton, Goshka Macuga, Eddie Peake, Prem Sahib
2022
Made in Birmingham/Made in Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney
‘Spaces of Transcendence’ (9 meter moving Image)
Glasstress, Berengo Studio, Venice
2020
Radical Figures: Painting in the New Millennium, Whitechapel Gallery, London
include film ‘Her Dreams Are Bigger’ & panel discussion
Malevich Symposium: The Power of Sound, 180 Strand, London
performative costumes for Haroon Mirza
A Rich Tapestry: Curated by Jonathan Watkins & Ayesha Khalid, Lahore Biennale, Lahore
new commission for ‘Huis-Clos (No Exit)’
between the sun and the moon, Lahore Biennale, Lahore
collaboration with Haroon Mirza on ‘A belief is not the truth because the truth is unbelievable’
2019
Nightfall, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels
curated by Fernanda Brenner, Milovan Farronato, Erika Verzutti
2018
Volcano Extravaganza, Fiorucci Art Trust, Stromboli
performance with Cecilia Bengolea and Haroon Mirza
Total Anastrophes, Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka
curated by Runa Islam and Milovan Farronato
The Fabric of India, Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio
organised by V&A Museum
2017
The Fabric of India, Ringling Museum, Florida
2013
The Wedding Dresses 1775-2014, V&A Museum, London
2011-12
Reconstruction,
Lahore Museum, Lahore
Central State Museum, Almaty
Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi
Style.uz, Tashkent
Bangladesh National Museum, Dhaka
2008
Brit Insurance Design of the Year Awards, Design Museum, London
2005
Jerwood: Fashion, Film and Fiction, The Wapping Project, London
Residencies
2021 /23 Royal College of Art, Sculpture
2022 Indus School of Art & Architecture, Textiles
2020 Birmingham School of Art, Printmaking
Studio Based Practice Led Research
Ph.D candidate @ Royal College of Art,
Sculpture via Textiles & Ceramics
a non-linear practice model to understand archives & memories of marginalised migrant communities through reconstructing materials
Monographs
2022 What is Seen & What is Not – V&A
catalogue to accompany Osman Yousefzada’s solo exhibition with Essays from Hammad Nassar, Catherine Ince, Grant Watson
2022 The Go-Between – Canongate London
a memoir through the eyes of a child growing up in a closed migrant community in central England
2018 Being Somewhere Else – Ikon Gallery
catalogue to accompany Osman Yousefzada’s solo exhibition with contributions from Diana Campbell Betancourt
Panel Talks / Lectures / Activism
Venice Architecture Biennale, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 3, Whitechapel Gallery, Royal College of Art, Central St Martins, Ikon Gallery, Facebook, Sky Arts, Sky News, BCU Birmingham School of Art, Newcastle University, Hays Literary Festival, British Council, Alternative Art Fair, Ubud Writers Festival - Bali, Edinburg Literary Festival, Cambridge Literary Festival, Oxford Literary Festival, Lahore Literary Festival - Pakistan, Indus School of Art & Architecture - Pakistan, Bradford Literary Festival, Borris Festival of Ideas - Ireland, Charleston Literary Festival.
Press
Financial Times
A Migrants Tale Laid Bare
Studio International
Opening Doors for others people is key to what I do
Sculpture Magazine
Looking back to go forward
Another Magazine
A powerful new exhibition explores the migrant experience.
The Guardian
It can’t be ignored: Osman Yousefzada on his gigantic artwork
Arts Newspaper
The Worlds largest Canvas
The New York Times
On Racism and British Fashion
Dazed Magazine
Artist Osman Yousefzada’s new show is a personal reflection on migration
Vogue UK
Osman Yousefzada Launches A New Exhibition On The Experience Of Migration
Refinery29
Designer Osman Explores His Mother's Oppression In New Exhibit
Flash Art
Volcano Extravaganza 2018
i-D Magazine VICE
"I left my heart in stromboli" - Interview with Osman Yousefzada
Observer
With His Fashion Line and Now His Art, Osman Yousefzada Pays Tribute to His Mom
Samdani Art Foundation
Volcano Extravaganza | Total Anastrophies
The Guardian
Osman Yousefzada: 'Shades of unity in hope of a new brown and black coalition'
SHOWStudio
Osman Yousefzada On Changing the Fashion System
The Wall Street Journal
Barneys New York Sets An Art-Filled Scene
Business of Fashion
Fashion’s Darkest Truth
The Voice of Fashion
Osman Yousefzada on South Asian Design, European Faces and Brown Hands
LUX Mag
Confined Artists – Free Spirits: Photographs from Lockdown
Plinth
Osman Yousefzada, Being Somewhere Else at Ikon Gallery
Published Articles
2023
Conversations From Calais
‘Where do you really come from?’
other writers include Ai Wei Wei
The Observer / The Guardian
’Nothing prepares you for the moment’
2022
The Observer / The Guardian
Shades of unity in hope of new brown and black coalition
Vogue
Osman Yousefzada’s Memoir Charts His Journey From a Strict Religious Upbringing to Fashion Week
The Times
‘I was the go-between for two worlds’
2020
British Vogue
On How Coronavirus Has Devastated “Forgotten Voices” In The BAME Community
2013-2019
The Collective (Editor & Publisher)
a zine collaborated with many creatives including Hans Ulrich Obrist, Prem Sahib, Stella Bottai